Nicholas Barr is Professor of Public Economics at the London School of Economics and the author of numerous books and articles including The Economics of the Welfare State (OUP, 2012), Financing Higher Education: Answers from the UK (with Iain Crawford) (Routledge 2005), and Reforming Pensions: Principles and Policy Choices (with Peter Diamond) (OUP, 2008). Alongside his academic work is wide-ranging involvement in policy, including spells at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Councils on Demographic Shifts and on Ageing Society. He has been active in policy debates, particularly on pension reform and higher education finance, advising governments in the post-communist countries, and in the UK, Australia, Chile, China, Hungary, New Zealand and South Africa.

Sharan Burrow was re-elected for a second term as General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation at the ITUC World Congress in May 2014. Previously President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) from 2000 – 2010, Sharan led union negotiations on major economic reforms and in labour rights campaigns including winning maternity protections. The ITUC is the world’s peak labour union body and has grown to represent 207 million workers in 163 countries and territories with 331 national affiliates. Sharan is well known for her international advocacy on labour standards, corporate responsibility, climate change, investment in infrastructure and the green economy, investment in the care economy, women, equality and diversity, global migration and employment. She has represented workers and civil society groups in global policy discussions in United Nations bodies, including ECOSOC, on the Governing Body of the International Labour Organization as well as at the G20, World Bank and International Monetary Fund. ITUC is a member of the Global Coalition on Social Protection Floors.

Nora Lustig is Samuel Z. Stone Professor of Latin American Economics and Director of the Commitment to Equity Institute (CEQ) at Tulane University. Professor Lustig’s research focuses on economic development, poverty and inequality, and social policies in developing countries. Her current research is centered on assessing the impact of taxation and social spending on inequality and poverty in low and middle-income countries, and on the determinants of income distribution in Latin America. Prof. Lustig is a founding member and past president of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA) and was a co-director of the World Bank’s World Development Report 2000/1, Attacking Poverty. She is the editor of the Journal of Economic Inequality Forum and a member of the Inter-American Dialogue, the Center of Global Development’s Advisory Board, ECINEQ’s Executive Council, PEP’s Board of Directors, and the World Economic Forum’s Economic Growth and Social Inclusion Stewardship Board. She is also a Nonresident Fellow at the Center for Global Development and the Inter-American Dialogue. Prof. Lustig has served on the Atkinson Commission on Poverty and on the Stiglitz et al. Commission on Measuring Economic Performance and Social Progress. She received her doctorate in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Michal Rutkowski is the Senior Director for Social Protection and Jobs at the World Bank. He oversees the Bank’s work in developing systems that protect the poorest and vulnerable from crises and shocks. Until July 2016, he was the Director for Multilateral Organizations, and prior to that the Country Director for the Russian Federation and the Resident Representative in Moscow for three years. Mr. Rutkowski joined the World Bank in 1990. He was a country economist for the Russian Federation between 1995-1996, and after taking a brief leave from the Bank, returned as Sector Manager for social protection between 1998-2004, where he led a team of professionals working on pensions, labor market and social assistance reforms in 28 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union, as well as in Turkey. Mr. Rutkowski’s published work covers issues on labor markets and social security. He was a core team member of the World Development Report “Workers in an Integrated World”- the World Bank’s annual flagship research publication - in 1995.

Prior to joining the World Bank, he helped design the Polish pension system while serving as the Director of the Office for Social Security Reform. He also taught at the Institute of Economic Policy at the Warsaw School of Economics.